Harrison VS330TR full bed regrind with saddle turcite underway 2022-10

[Laurentian]

Hi there group, been reading and researching here for the past two months and have learnt quite a bit. What it boils down to is our Colchester Student 1800 has gotten beyond economical repair ( worn quick speed gear change mechanism and noisy headstock ) and is being replaced with a newer used Harrison UK built variable speed 13" lathe. We chose this model due to it's like small footprint and similar capacity as the square head Student. ( our shop is quite full and cannot free up anymore floor space while we're in here ) Plus there isn't much out there at the moment that fits the bill unless we import a new Asian lathe in what is an unpopular 13" x 25" size with powerful 3HP 3 phase motor. I would of been happy with an M300 gear head but none were to be had in Canada other than one that showed up on Kijiji partially disassembled. Was a basket case of mid seventies vintage with possibly just as much bed wear and other nasty surprises such as spindle bearings.

Harrison's sheet metal fabricated base is slightly lighter than the cast iron based Colchester headstock stand at 1450 pounds total compared to 1750 lbs. for the Colchester. Bed is an inch narrower on the VS330 and a couple other things seem a little smaller but for what we do the differences seem unimportant, both being D1-4 spindles so am confident the Harrison will be stout enough. Also thinking fact that it's variable speed it will see less gearbox abuse from staff between speed range shifts as a large knob is used in conjunction with a hand wheel for the mechanical variator, less prone to being slammed in and out of gear with the paddle levers which did in the Colchester over time.

Anyhow after much thought decided to send the bed out for regrind to a local Montreal based machine tool rebuild shop that does Pratt and Whitney work for the Longueuil engine plant. I had stripped the machine so far down that it would of been a shame not to rebuild it. So the bed is sitting here on the floor right now and will be skidded and shipped out this Tuesday. Machine is tail end mid nineties model run before they went over to the Alpha series and from what I could tell reading it's serial #'s and an electrical component date stamp inside the cabinet ( May 1995 ) It came out of the Air Canada Aveos Monteal plant when they closed up in 2012 where staff had obviously used it for sanding or machining some abrasive material as evidenced from the abrasive laden caked dried coolant and emery paper colored grit that was in every nook and cranny.

The bed will be re epoxied onto the base when it comes back, nice write up here in PM archives :

re-grouting lathe bed to factory steel cabinet base

Hello All My machine is an Harrison M300 (13 x 40) and I am setting it up in my garage. I have been having difficulty getting it level. It has leveling bolts in each of four corners. My level is a precision level with bubble gradations that are .0003" per foot. When I get the headstock end dead...

www.practicalmachinist.com

I'll post up a pic of the bed and saddle on the skid before they go out later this week.

Hugh

 

[Laurentian]

Before gear box and headstock removal. Had some help.

 

[john.k]

A lot of overhang on the variable pulley there...........any outrigger bearing?

 

[Laurentian]

Yes, all oem factory, emailed Harrison for the manual is as it should be with bearing on that outer swivel arm you see. If you look closely you can see the cable end that acts on that lower outer pulley drawing it in or out. Machine is 100% complete and runs nice and smooth I did try it before committing to it. Have a new Optibelt belt for it.

 

[Laurentian]

Just came back from the machine re-builder's place and they sure know what they're doing !

Bed reground on all surfaces and a little clean up on the underside of the bed where the saddle adjusters ride. Wasn't expecting that, nice. Turns out the bed was worn by .015", that is how much they went down to clean up the worn valley close to the head stock, a lot more than I was anticipating.. and this is a late 90's machine. So much grit, wonder what the hell previous owner Air Canada Maintenance were doing on it ?? Shit heads !

Saddle Turcite is in and glued, they used 1/16" which I'm happy with. They've ground the cross slide top and bottom faces as well as it's dovetail so they'll will be extending the taper gib a little by adding an end piece to the large end ( otherwise we'd run out of adjustment with the screw type adjusters ) Last touch is them cleaning up the saddle dovetails and flats on which the cross slide rides then hand scraping some of that fit ? I mentioned getting the machine to face concave so I'm hoping they have a good squaring bloc device to check that. I had trouble understanding how they go about doing that check as they only have the bed with rack, saddle, apron and cross slide to work with so wondering how they get it all square ?

Should be ready later next week, more to come with pics. Didn't cross my mind to take pics while there, I'll try next week week if ok with them.

Here is their web site : http://www.specialitesam.com/en/cnt/nos_services/index.htm

 

[Richard King]

They can check it 2 ways. Look at Keith Rucker you tube squaring his LeBlond lathe as he sets a granite square on the bed and makes one side co-planer to the saddle sliding on the bed and then slides the cross-slide in and out on the other side of the square. Page 275 in Connelly book fig 26.20 Or they can lay 2 dowel pins on the top of the cross-slide and butt up the short side of a blade square against the 2 pins, mount a mag base on the bed, using a .0005 indicator touching the thin side of the square and then sliding the saddle on the bed. Making it out of square .0008/12"to face concave. It's easy for a pro to do it that way. We do that and then mount the headstock and indicate in a test bar in the spindle. Connelly book page 303 fig 26.60. I sell the Connelly book Machine Tool reconditioning" on Ebay if you need one.

 

[Richard King]

I hope they milled off some material off the bottom of the saddle before they glued on the Turcite. Or the rack and pinion will be to tight when you mount the Carriage to the saddle.

 

[Laurentian]

Hello Richard, a little tired right now I'll re read you methods over and once I get a handle on them I'll run it by my guys.

They mentioned some type of check using dowels while discussing the matter so I think we'll be ok and will review Keith's use of the granite square good suggestion. We discussed my using a test bar to set the head stock back on, however it's the small type that sits on both inverted V's so not much to do other than scraping it in if need be. I'm pretty sure it'll be very close if the underside wasn't tampered with, will check that tomorrow.

Ok on book and some basic supplies next week to be ready when it all comes back and get to re-assembly.

Thanks !!

 

[Laurentian]

Yes on milling away material on the saddle Vee and flat to remove wear slope and make room for the Turcite with glue.
I was going to keep the rack here until they asked me for it when I was preparing to ship the bed. Exactly as you mentioned to get proper rack and pinion gear interface and original height back. Was getting the dreaded lead screw rubbing sound and feel as the saddle was cranked side to side, would get louder near head stock but even had some going on all the way to right, indicating major saddle wear.

 

[Laurentian]

With the removal of .015" on the bed surfaces after regrind I'm now wondering how much hardened thickness we'll have left ? I've seem pictures of Monarch's vintage flame hardened bed profile cutaways that looked like 1/8" deep. The Harrison Colchester and most small modern era lathes seem to be induction hardened so until I can use our neighbors portable hardness tester in an inconspicuous location I'm left guessing and hoping it'll still have some hardness left.

 

[Laurentian]

Went to the machine re builder's today to sign off on the job and get them paid up. Looking good, will have it trucked over early next week. Here is bed with carriage riding on turcite and the cross slide scraped in square. Machine will be re assembled over the holidays and back into production for January. More later as I progress as this is a full resto apart from leaving the head stock intact hoping the spindle bearing are good to go. This is the same bed and saddle as the Harrrison M300 for those that are wondering.

 

[Laurentian]

Pics of their Rockford planer :

 

[Laurentian]

Here is the founder of the company, Mr. Gingras. 88 years old still working full weeks with his sons.

 

[pat pounden]

Here is the founder of the company, Mr. Gingras. 88 years old still working full weeks with his sons.

wow!,,,,,go man go

 

[TGTool]

Here is the founder of the company, Mr. Gingras. 88 years old still working full weeks with his sons.

Nice grit catching setup. Inexpensive and good enough.